25 coaches certified at Softball Asia seminar in Thailand

The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), Softball Asia (SA) and the Japan Softball Association (JSA) jointly organised a Softball Coaching Certification Seminar in Pattaya, Thailand, from 17 to 20 February. A total of 25 out of 26 coaches from six countries were certified at both Level 1 (7 coaches) and Level 2 (18 coaches).

""This is an important development program for SA and WBSC in collaboration, aimed at continuing efforts to assist coaches with the necessary skills and strategies," said Yutaka Miyake, Softball Asia Coaching Committee chair and WBSC Coaching Commission member. "The first seminar in 2021, held in Penang, Malaysia, was a success and there were many requests for more coaching seminars."

The certification seminar was conducted by Miyake, Tomoaki Okamoto (SA Coaching Committee Chair, JSA Executive Director, and former head coach of the Japanese Men's National Softball Team); Yoshio Yamaguchi (former head coach of the Japanese Junior Men's National Softball Team and JSA Board Member ); Toru Kuramata (JSA Board Member) and Sadanori Munekata (former head coach of the Japanese Junior Women National Softball Team).

The 26 participants came from Bhutan (1), Iraq (1), India (5), Malaysia (10), Singapore (2) and Thailand (7).

The four-day program included an introductory class, practice sessions on the field about every aspect of the game (technical skills, strategy, pitching, hitting, etc.) and the final tests and practical assessment.